The Kolowratshöhle is situated on the north slope of the Untersberg,
near Salzburg, at an altitude of 1391 meters. My brother and I visited
it on the 2d of August, 1895. We had one of the patented guides of the
district, Jacob Gruber by name, in regular Tyrolese dress, with gray
_jacke_ and black chamois knee breeches. We left Salzburg in the early
morning in an _einspänner_ and drove to the foot of the Untersberg in
about an hour, whence, by a rough path passing by the Rositten Alp, we
ascended to the cave in about three hours. The last hundred and sixteen
meters of the path were cut across some moderately steep rock slabs and
a perfectly unnecessary iron hand-railing affixed.
The entrance faces northeast. Here there must have been a slight
draught of cold air moving outwards, the effect of which was
perceptible to the eye, as at the point where the cold inside air
met the quiet warm outside air, a faint mist was visible. From the
entrance, a sharp slope, set at an angle of about forty degrees, led
to the lowest point of the cave. The upper half of this slope was
still covered with the winter snow which had blown or had slid in. We
descended on the right hand edge of the snow by means of some steps
cut in the rock by the _Deutschen-Oesterreichischen Alpen Club_.
These steps were covered with a sticky, red mud, which left almost
ineradicable stains on our clothing, and as there was also ice in
places, they were decidedly slippery.
[Illustration: THE ENTRANCE OF THE KOLOWRATSHÖHLE.]
[Illustration: Fig. 3. Vertical Section of the Kolowratshöhle.]
At the bottom of the slope we were at the lowest point of the cave,
to which all the water flowed, and where it drained off into a crack
with a loud gurgling noise. Back of us was the daylight streaming
through the entrance; opposite to us was first an ice floor, then a
great ice slope, which came down from the further end of the cave. The
ice was transparent and of a pale ochre-greenish hue, and filled the
entire width of the cave. There is a streak of iron, probably, through
the limestone, which in places tints the rocks a dull red. The color
impression is a dull green-red, and, on account of the size of the
entrance, the light effect is only semi-subterranean.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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